Go ahead and tell us what are the odds that a Major-League Baseball team is gonna surrender 17 runs in a game twice in one week (and the week’s not even over yet!)?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been on the short end of a 17-1 score (see last Monday at the Los Angeles Dodgers) and a 17-5 score (see Friday night as hosts to the Philadelphia Phillies) and Bucs’ manager Clint Hurdle has gotta have fingers crossed that there won’t be a three-times-a-charm deal here with 17 runs allowed in either the Saturday or Sunday games against the Phillies.

In the latest eruption of 17 runs scored against the Buccos (now 40-47), the National League Central club watched helplessly as the Phillies erupted for 17 runs on 18 hits and note that Philly had three players with three-or-more hits in the Friday bloodbath including the normally quiet bat of SS Scott Kingery who stroked four hits and scored three runs. The Pirates sent six different pitchers to the mound in the lopsided loss on Friday night but how about the line score of Pirates’ righty reliever Dovydas Neverauskas who yielded 4 runs, 3 hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning.

Yikes!

Note …

Jim Hurley and his Network of Handicappers and Bloggers are winning big with Major League Baseball action each/every day. So, make sure you cash in big right here at www.jimhurley.com or via our toll-free telephone # of 1-800-323-4453. Go ahead and pile up the profits as we head towards another great NCAA Football / NFL season straight ahead!

NFL

We continue our NFL team-by-team summer accounts right here – and every day at Jim Sez we’ll be posting a couple/few teams as we check out news/notes/reports. Plus, we get you some key pointspread info to boot and note a team’s SU (straight-up) record is listed next to the team name. Here’s the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs:

ATLANTA (11-7) – Whether they like it or not, the Falcons will open the 2018 campaign at defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia on Thursday, Sept. 6th but, perhaps, this NFC South club could be buoyed by the fact New England last year lost its NFL Kickoff Game 42-27 as bloated 9-point home betting favorites against Kansas City … so there. Atlanta then will have 10 days off before hosting Carolina followed a week later by a home game against New Orleans, then a home tilt against Cincinnati. Hey, if this Falcons’ offense – one that registered only 21 aerial touchdowns and just 12 rushing scores a year ago – can “step on it” under second-year offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian then this could be a super start for the new-look “Dirty Birds”.

Pointspread Notes – The truth is the Falcons are just 40-45 ATS (against the spread) overall the past five years (that’s a .471 winning rate) and that record includes Atlanta going a sour 17-26 spreadwise as betting favorites during this time span. P.S., the Falcons are 3-6-1 ATS in post-season action the past 10 years.

KANSAS CITY (10-7) – The Chiefs were the AFC’s only 10-wins-or-better team not to be playing beyond the first week in January this past season as head coach Andy Reid’s guys gagged en route to a 22-21 loss to Tennessee in Round One of the playoffs. In fact, this AFC West team has a 30-0 win against a sad-sack Houston team in the playoffs three years ago as the franchise’s only playoff win the past decade and folks in/around KC are quick to say there’s more to this upcoming campaign than second-year/new starting QB Patrick Mahomes. Still, we’re scratching our head as to why KC didn’t draft a single offensive player last spring – that’s right, six picks and all on defense! – but insiders tell us to watch for WR Sammy Watkins who caught 25 TD passes in his four seasons with Buffalo / Los Angeles Rams. Note that Watkins inked a three-year, $48 million deal with Kansas City back on March 15th and it’s safe to say he’ll get targeted a lot more this year than he was last year in Los Angeles.

Pointspread Notes – Last year’s Chiefs finished 10-7 ATS but check out how KayCee got there: A five-game spread winning streak to start off the 2017 season and four consecutive pointspread covers late before the season-ending, above-mentioned non-cover in the AFC Wild Card Game against Tennessee. Overall, Kansas City’s 1-5 versus the vig in post-season play while dating back to the 2010 campaign.

NOTE: More MLB and NFL stuff in the next edition of Jim Sez plus there’s NCAA Football notes comin’ your way soon too!